Narendra Modi, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, will address a rally in Agra in Uttar Pradesh today
Three men accused of inciting deadly riots in Uttar Pradesh will be treated as guests of honour today at election rallies in the western part of the state, where nearly 60 people were killed in communal violence in Muzzaffarnagar three months ago.
Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, state legislators from the BJP, spent over a month in jail for instigating that Hindu-Muslim violence. But they will be garlanded by state leaders from Uttar Pradesh.
Though the controversial legislators are likely to be seated on the large stage from where Mr Modi will deliver his speech, the party is keen to keep some distance between them and its prime ministerial candidate, who is engulfed in a controversy over whether he ordered the illegal surveillance of a young woman in Gujarat in 2009.
Some 200 km away in Bareilly, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief of the state's ruling Samajwadi Party, and his Chief Minister son Akhilesh Yadav are also addressing a rally. A hot air balloon has reportedly been organized to shower flowers on the audience. The Samajwadi Party is dependent on the support of the state's Muslims, and has been accused by the BJP of implementing policies that are heavily tilted in their favour.
The Yadavs are sharing the stage with a controversial Sunni cleric named Tauqeer Raza Khan. In 2010, he was arrested by the government then headed by Mayawati for fueling riots in Bareilly, which led to two months of curfew in the city. He was also instrumental in a fatwa issued against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in 2007.
Western Uttar Pradesh has eight of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats, which are crucial in determining who takes power at the Centre.Three Lok Sabha seats and 26 assembly constituencies in the region are with the Samajwadi Party.